Driver: San Francisco
Driver San Francisco is the latest version of the Driver series. It is revealed that both John Tanner and Charles Jericho have recovered from their gunshot wounds from the shootout in Istanbul, Turkey. Tanner and his partner Tobias Jones move to San Francisco along with Jericho, who escapes prison and Tanner is mortally wounded and put into a coma after being in a car accident while pursuing Jericho. The game takes place in the San Francisco inside Tanner's head while he is in coma. He discovers a new supernatural ability called 'Shift', which enables him to brainjack citizens of San Francisco, which he uses to take down Jericho. Plot See also: Characters in Driver: San Francisco PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows The game takes place six months after the events of Driv3r. It is revealed that both John Tanner and Charles Jericho survived the shootout in Istanbul. In the game's trailer, it is revealed that since then, both men have recovered and Jericho has escaped to San Francisco, while Tanner and his partner; Tobias Jones have pursued him there. Jericho is shown being transported in the back of a prison truck, but manages to escape with help of hired assassin Leila Sharan, who hijacks a KEOC news chopper and fires an RPG at the convoy, and a vial of acid hidden within his mouth by a paid off guard. He overpowers the guards, and hijacks the truck. Tanner and Jones witness this from Tanner's car, pursuing Jericho as he causes havoc on the streets of the city. Tanner ends up driving in front of Jericho in an alleyway, who rams Tanner's car into the path of a tractor trailer, resulting in a devastating crash which puts Tanner into a coma. The majority of the game takes place in Tanner's coma. Whilst in a coma, Tanner soon discovers his ability to "shift" into another person's body, retaining his person, but, to everyone else, looking and sounding exactly the same as the person he has shifted into. Using this confusing power, Tanner helps some teenagers win street races to get money for college fees, aids some vigilante ex-cops remove fake medicine from circulation and lends his driving abilities to police officers hunting down criminals whilst trying to figure out Jericho's plan. After deducing that Jericho is after the materials to create a cyanide gas bomb, he shifts into Ordell Williams, a low-time crook looking to rise up through Jericho's organization. Unfortunately for Tanner, he discovers that Jericho can also shift, and realizes that when he is not in his body, Jericho can take over. He is deconspired, when disguised as Ordell, drives Leila to her target (John Tanner). Eventually, Tanner realises that he is in a dream world when the strange messages from the real world creep into his mind. Jericho's powers become more potent, but as it is in Tanner's head, he is over-powered and defeated when Tanner assumes control of his mental projection of the city. In a mental visualization of a police interrogation room, Tanner begins questioning his mental projection of Jericho and realizes that the news reports from the television in his real-world hospital bed are feeding his coma dream. From this he knows of a real-world bomb plot, but deduces that it is not real - Jericho is a gangster, not a terrorist. Finally waking up, Tanner requests his car keys from Jones, who reminds him of the truck that hit his Dodge Challenger. Leaving in Jones' Camaro and heading for downtown San Francisco, which is being evacuated due to a bomb threat, a massive cloud of gas erupts. Driving into it, Tanner finds escaping convicts, confirming his theory that it was not a real terror threat. Jericho made a deal with a prisoner for US$30 million to break him out of jail. The 'bomb' was in fact a smokescreen. After a pursuit, Tanner sees Jericho head into the docks. Whilst at first appearing to be a game of chicken and a potential head-on collision, Jones appears in a police SUV and rams Jericho. Tanner claims that he knew what he was doing, but Jones reminds him whose car he was driving before suggesting a well-deserved beer. The fact that Jericho got T-boned, just like Tanner at the beginning of the game, and the song "Eye for an Eye" playing in the background, implies that Jericho was put into a coma. Wii Edition The plot of the Wii version of Driver: San Francisco is a completely different and separate story, the story is a prequel to the original Driver: You Are the Wheelman. It features John Tanner as a rookie undercover cop. Tanner and Emilio Alvarez are chasing Solomon Caine when they get into a car crash. Alvarez is killed and Tanner goes undercover to find his killer. He is accompanied by Tobias Jones, who Tanner dislikes at first. Tanner gains the trust of a gang run by Caine and does various jobs for him. He also ends up setting two rival gangs, the Dog Fish and the Dragon Ladies, up against each other to create a market for military-grade arms. Later on, Tanner must pick up a member of Caine's gang, known as "the Geek" to help them steal back confiscated weapons. Tanner's identity is foiled when the Geek recognizes him as a cop who put him away before and alerts the others. Tanner is then held captive by Caine's crew. Meanwhile, Jones and the other officers believe Tanner is dead until they get a tip about his location. Jones saves Tanner from nearly being killed. Tanner now knows who Alvarez's killer is and Caine's plans. They end up trapping one of his gang members and talking to a witness for information on a weapons drop. Once they get the intel, they set up a fake drop to arrest Caine. Tanner and Jones then take down a convoy of weapons trucks before they reach their buyers. When they return to the drop, Caine escapes again but Tanner tracks him down and arrests him again. When they take him to the police precinct, Caine's gang members save him. Tanner and Jones then use a police helicopter to chase him. Caine is finally captured when a helicopter he gets into crashes on Alcatraz Island. In the end, Caine is convicted of murdering Alvarez and arms-dealing. He is sentenced to life in prison. Elsewhere, Jones suggests to Tanner a beer and the two race back to the police headquarters. Gameplay A new feature for the game is Shift, which allows Tanner to shift from a car into another car and continue the mission. One of the inspirations for Shift comes from Google Earth. The game is also being described as a "return to the roots" to the series as the ability to get out of the car, which was introduced in Driver 2, has been removed as the developers felt that too many games have this kind of feature already and "it wasn't desirable for us to just copy that exact mechanic.". With Shift, the player can also start missions. As well as the ability to use Shift, all cars will be equipped with a 'boost' feature, which is used by pushing forward on the left thumb stick. Players can also push L1 on the PlayStation 3 or the left shoulder button on the Xbox 360 to perform a special 'ram' attack on cars. The film director mode, which was absent from Parallel Lines, also returns, which allows players to share videos of the game on the Driver Club website (until it was removed by Ubisoft). The game runs at 60 frames per second. Setting The game has one of the largest driving environments. The game's San Francisco recreation has about 208 miles (335 km) of roads. Various landmarks are recreated in the game including half of the Bay Bridge and parts of Marin County and Oakland. In the Wii version, however, access to the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges are blocked, thus preventing the driver from driving through parts of Marin County and Oakland. However, it is a more fictionalized interpretation of these areas. Multiplayer Split screen and online multiplayer are also available for the first time in the series with 19 different game modes including trailblazer, tag, sprint GT, cops and robbers, among others. In Trail Blazer, the players have to follow the trail of an AI-controlled car to accumulate points. The player who accumulates more points will win the match. The Tag game mode is similar to regular tag, but in reverse. All the players are trying to "tag," or hit, one player. Once he is hit, the person who tagged him is now it. The multiplayer will also have experience points. Cars Driver San Francisco is the first game in the series including 140 fully damageable licensed vehicles ranging from buggies, muscle cars, and sport cars including Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Bentley, Ruf Automobile, Dodge, Ford, Shelby, Volkswagen, Pagani, Lincoln, DeLorean, Lamborghini, Chevrolet, GMC, Hudson, Hummer, Jaguar, Jeep, Lancia, Maserati, McLaren, Nissan, Oldsmobile, Ponatic, RAM, Abarth, Range Rover and Cadillac. Also featured are some fictional vehicles: the Asym Desanne sedan, Caisson buses, Camion Hydramax fire trucks, Dykemann trucks, and a YARE buggy. See: Vehicles in Driver: San Francisco (for a list of 140 licensed cars) Wii version The Wii version of the game does not include the "Shift" mechanic but allows players to use guns while driving. The SMG, the pistol, the shotgun, the assault rifle and the RPG are all the weapons available in the game. All weapons can be upgraded in the following categories, Clip size, reload speed, and damage. There is a maximum of four levels for each upgrade. Upgrade points can be earned by doing various tricks and earning awards around the city.A new feature for the Wii is the localized multi-player, a second player may take control of the gun or, if they desire, can connect a DS system through download play. The DS device can be used to make road blocks, look for police and buy player 1 some more time through playing various mini games. The player is also able to play as two other characters besides Tanner: Solomon Caine and Tobias Jones. Missions Driver San Francisco packs a lot of HD-spectacular Tanner's missions and sub-mission that can make a city better and help people in need for their one reason. This game has 7 chapters which you take the lead for finding Jericho and taking him down. But when one accident happens, when Tanner chases Jericho for his last breath, Tanner was in a coma when a truck hits them with Jones. So, all 7 chapters was in Tanner's imagination in San Francisco, knowing the situation of himself and following the paths of Jericho, building a diversion to detonate the whole city (in real life after Tanner's coma.) See also: Missions (for a whole missions in city) Development The game has been in development for around five years. A new game in the series was confirmed to be in production at the 2005 Tokyo Game Show when Sony announced a list of 102 that would be released on the PlayStation 3. Ubisoft later confirmed a new game in the series after acquiring the series from Atari. In June 2008, the BBC conducted reports on the computer game industry, among those reports were in-game, and development footage of the next Driver game. On April 21, 2009, Ubisoft registered the trademark Driver: The Recruit. On January 2010, it was confirmed that a new Driver game was in development and due for release in Ubisoft's fiscal year ending in March 2011. On April 23, 2010, Ubisoft registered the domain driversanfranciscogame.com as well as driversanfrancisco.com and driversanfran.com, suggesting that San Francisco was the setting of the new game in the series. On May 27, 2010, Ubisoft confirmed that the next installment in the Driver series would appear on E3 2010, along with other games. On 7 June 2010, Ubisoft released a teaser website containing a live action trailer, resembling the first mission of the [[Driver|original Driver]] game, along with a countdown for Ubisoft's E3 2010 conference. Ubisoft also created the game's Facebook page, which upon clicking in the "Like" button, opens a slightly different version of the trailer, showing a Californian driver license of John Tanner. A billboard at the LA Convention Center for E3 revealed the title of the new game to be Driver: San Francisco. Ubisoft officially announced the game on their E3 2010 conference. On November 12, 2010 the game has been delayed and is set to be released in FY 2012, which is between March 31, 2011 and the same date in 2012. Reflections founder and series creator Martin Edmondson, returned to Reflections after he temporarily left the game industry in 2004. The game was developed by five Ubisoft studios with Reflections as the lead, and four other developers: Vancouver, Kiev, Shanghai and Montreal. Ubisoft released a free DLC, with 12 new routes for all online modes on September 12. On July 15, 2011 Ubisoft announced that all of their future games with online functionality would require 'Uplay Passport' online pass. Driver: San Francisco would be the first in line to utilize this feature. However, due to misprinted codes, which left players who bought new copies of the game unable to play online, the online pass was waived for the Xbox 360 version. Audio The game's audio was mixed at Pinewood Studios, which is known for the James Bond film franchise. The game will include 60 licensed songs, an original score from Marc Canham along with a new version of the Driver theme by Canham. The OST is mixed and produced by RIch Aitken at Nimrod. On August 30 the soundtrack was confirmed with 76 songs with genres like funk, hip hop, Electronic, alternative rock and hard rock with artists like Aretha Franklin, Dr. John, DJ Shadow, The Black Keys, The Cure, Beastie Boys, Queens of the Stone Age, The Heavy, UNKLE, Elbow, and Marlena Shaw, among more. Both the PlayStation3 and Xbox 360 versions supports custom soundtrack which allows players to play their own music during gameplay. Marketing Comic mini-series A comic book mini-series published by Wildstorm Productions based on the game will be released. The storyline takes place after the events of Driv3r and before San Francisco, and will focus on Tanner's personal vengeance against Jericho. The mini-series being written by David Lapham and illustrated by Greg Scott. The first issue was released on August 2011 and a preview entitled The Pursuit of Nothingness was available on Comic-Con 2010. Collector's edition A collector's edition will be available for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows versions of the game for PAL territories only. The pack includes a 18×9×9 cm replica of a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T 440 Six Pack, a map of San Francisco detailing the in-game location of the 80 dares scattered across the city, three exclusive in-game cars for multiplayer mode including 1963 Aston Martin DB5, 1972 Lamborghini Miura, and 1966 Shelby Cobra 427, and 4 single player challenges: * Mass Chase – a wrongfully accused driver attempts to escape the whole police force of San Francisco and prove his innocence * Relay Race – change car between laps to win race * Russian Hills Racers – Race against 3 super cars in the famous district * Taxi – Race against other taxis in Downtown. Reception The game has garnered mostly positive reviews with most critics. Aggregate website Metacritic holds the average review for the PlayStation 3 version at 79% and the Xbox 360 and PC versions at 80%. Most of the critics praised the "Shift" mechanic, citing it as "innovative", and the multiplayer. The storyline was criticized, however, as being ludicrous. The Wii Version received mixed to positive reviews. Awards The game won the Best Driving Game of E3 2010 award from Ripten. The game also received nominations from Kotaku and GameTrailers. During E3 2011 It also received a Best Racing Game award from Machinima.com and nominations from GameTrailers, G4tv and Game Critics Awards. Driver: San Francisco has also appeared as number two in Zero Punctuation's Top 5 video. Sales Ubisoft has announced that the sales of Driver: San Francisco have exceeded their expectations in its latest quarterly financial report. Glitch Ram Cancel Glitch There's a very easy glitch that will make cars go faster than their usual top speed. Simply charge a ram to its maximum strength, release the ram button, shift away from the vehicle, and then immediately back in a split second later. This makes the car you're in surge forward like doing a normal ram but will not suffer the missed-ram penalty (a sharp decline in speed if you release a ram and fail to collide with another vehicle). This glitch allows for a vehicle to reach its top speed very quickly and go faster than its top speed, if only for a brief second or two. However the time it takes your car to slow from maximum ramming speed is long enough for you to quickly execute the glitch again and keep a vehicle traveling significantly faster than simple boosting. This 'new' top speed scales to each vehicle, so sad to say you can't get a 200 mph semi truck. But the 180 mph Escalade that is possible can accomplish similar smashy-type results. External links *https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/driver-san-francisco/ - Official website. *[http://www.driver-club.ubi.com/ Driver Club] (Dead) Category:Games Category:Driver: San Francisco